Field Activity - Main Information
The Main page contains core field activity information. Open this page using
Description of Page
The following fields are displayed on every page.
Field Activity is a concatenation of summary information regarding this field activity. It is composed of the address of the premise of the service point at which the activity will occur, a brief description of the activity, the activity's current status, and the activity's scheduled date.
Field Activity ID is the system-generated unique identifier for the field activity.
The remaining fields are specific to the Main page.
Indicate the Service Point ID at which the activity takes place. Information about the service point is displayed adjacent.
Use Activity Type to define the type of field activity. Only those activity types defined as valid for the service point's SP type's field activity profile may be selected. The activity type's description is displayed adjacent.
Displayed just below the Activity Type is a system-generated message regarding how the field activity was created. This message includes the date and time the field activity was created and the process that created it. If a user manually creates a field activity the user's ID is concatenated into the message.
Use Schedule Date / Time to define when the field activity is scheduled to be done.
Enter Reschedule Reason when changing the field activity's schedule date/time.
Reschedule Reason only appears if the Fieldwork Options feature configuration exists with the Reschedule Reason Required option set to Y.
If an appointment is linked to this field activity, the system calls the appointment information algorithm plugged in to the installation options.
Field Activity Status defines the state of the field activity. The following values may exist:
Pending A field activity is originally created in the Pending state.
Completed When an activity's fieldwork is done the system is updated with the results and the activity becomes Completed.
Canceled If an activity cannot be done, it should be Canceled.
Held Change an activity's status to Held if you want to hold the activity pending some future event.
To completely understand the significance of a field activity's status, refer to The Big Picture Of Field Orders.
To change the status of the field activity, use the FA Actions, described below.
If you cancel a field activity, you must supply a Cancel Reason Code.
Field Activity Priority is a default value from the field activity's field activity type. It is used by the system to establish the order of precedence if there are several field activities pending for the same service point at the same time. The user may override this value.
Eligible for Dispatch controls whether a Dispatch Group can be assigned to the field activity and whether the field activity can be linked to a field order. This field is display-only (it is defined on the activity's activity type)
Use Dispatch Group to define the logical group of representatives located at an operations area that is responsible for the activity. For example, in the South West Operations Area you may have the dispatch groups of SW Service Installers, SW Service Investigators, SW Meter Exchangers, etc. Within each dispatch group are representatives with interchangeable skills (i.e., you can assign a field activity to any representative within a dispatch group). You only define the representative when the field activity is linked to a field order. Refer to Setting Up Dispatch Groups for more information.
Default note. The type of field activity and the service point's SP type and operations area define the Dispatch group that the system assigns to a field activity. Refer to Designing Who Does Your Field Activities for more information.
A Field Order's dispatch group comes from its field activities. When the system creates a field order from the Dispatch Field Activities query it populates the order's dispatch group using the dispatch group on the field activity(s). After the field order is created, you can change the order's dispatch group as needed. Changing the dispatch group on the order effectively changes the dispatch group on the order's activities.
Dispatch group may be overridden as part of grouping field activities prior to dispatching. When a user creates a field order on the Group Field Activities page, the order's dispatch group is assigned Using Alternate Dispatch Groups To Find The Lowest Common Denominator for more information.
Dispatch group is protected when the field activity is linked to a field order. Once a field order has been created for a field activity, the dispatch group on the field activity cannot be changed. The change to a dispatch group should occur on the field order.
Field Order ID defines the field order to which the activity is linked. This field is gray if the activity type is not eligible for dispatch. This field will be blank when the activity is not linked to a field order. Summary information about the field order appears adjacent.
If the dispatch group for the field activity references an external system feature configuration, the External ID is used to reference the unique identifier of the field activity in the external system. The Intermediate Status field is used to display interim status of a dispatched field activity.
Integration Required. The external ID and intermediate status fields are only updated if the integration with your external system passes this information to the system.
The values for the intermediate status field are customizable using the Lookup table. This field name is FA_INT_STATUS_FLG. Many values are supplied with the base product to support different sample integrations. Refer to the documentation related to out-of-the-box integrations supplied with our other products such as Oracle Utilities Mobile Workforce Management and Oracle Utilities Work and Asset Management to see what values are used for integration with those systems.
Use Instructions to specify any special instructions to be supplied to the field crew.
Use Comments to describe anything unusual about the activity. For example, if you change the activity's status to Held , it might be a good idea to explain why you did so in the comments.
If you have plugged in an FA Additional Information algorithm on the Installation record, Additional Info displays the results of the algorithm, if any.
The FA Actions buttons allow you to change the status of the field activity.
- Click Complete to change the status of the field activity to complete. This button is only enabled if the status is pending or held.
- Click Cancel to change the status of the field activity to canceled. This button is only enabled if the status is pending or held.
- Click Hold to change the status of the field activity to held. This button is only enabled if the status is pending . This button is not enabled if the field activity is linked to a service order from an external system.
- Click Pend to change the status of the field activity to pending. This button is only enabled if the status is held .
At the bottom of this page is a tree that shows the account(s) and service agreement(s) that are currently linked to the field activity's service point. You can use this tree to both view high-level information about these objects and to transfer to the respective page in which an object is maintained.